(Over at the Minority President Report, retired Miami Herald newsman Marty Merzer has compiled a detailed and comprehensive look at the reactions to the president's remarks.)

So now might be an opportune time to take a look back at how a real president dealt with the press more than a half century ago. .

John F. Kennedy, the 35th President of the United States, "was the first president to effectively use the new medium of television to speak directly to the American people. No other president had conducted live televised press conferences without delay or editing," according to the the JFK Library website.

"The public loved John F. Kennedy's press conferences, although some of his advisors worried about the risk of mistakes by the president and others thought the press showed insufficient respect for the dignity of his office. By November 1963, President Kennedy had held 64 news conferences, an average of one every sixteen days. The first, less than a week after his inauguration, was viewed by an estimated 65 million people"

During an interview in December 1962, Sander Vanocur of NBC asked Kennedy about his reading habits.